So you want to take up learning guitar but you’re unsure if you should be playing right or left handed? Take a read through this article to hopefully find the answer to this tricky question!

I’m constantly wasting time correcting poor advice given by right handed players who think they know it all. It really is unbelievable the levels of sheer stupidity I see spouted by misinformed players. If you’d never owned a Porsche would you give advice to someone wanting to find out what it’s like to drive one? No, you certainly would not! The same principle applies to guitar. The majority of right handed players are in no position to be giving advice about playing guitar left handed.

So here we go, hopefully this will clear everything up once and for all.

Should I Play Guitar Left Handed or Right Handed?

This is a simple question that you can only answer yourself. Do not let anyone try and tell you that one way is better than another, because they are in no way qualified to tell you this. Every single person in this world is unique, and will perform various tasks in the most easy and efficient manner for themselves.

How Do I Discover What Is Best For Me?

Stop what you are doing and play some air guitar for a second, don’t think about it, just do it. Did you strum with your left or right hand? If you strummed with your left hand you should play left handed, and in the same way if you strummed with your right hand you should play right handed. Simple, right?

Another easy test is to watch how you clap your hands – the hand that does all (or most of) the movement is the hand that you should strum with. People often assume that your dominant hand should be performing the “more complex” fretting job – however I generally have found that this is not the case. In my experience, the picking hand demands more precise coordination than the fretting hand.

The one piece of advice that really irks me is the old “you’ll have an advantage with your dominant hand doing the fretting, cos it’s erm…harder“. Think about how silly that advice is. If that were true, why are all righties not playing left handed? Why is a left handed guitar not the norm? It’s just completely nonsensical.

But Another Left Handed Person Told Me He Plays Right Handed

This person is most likely not a natural left handed guitar player, has accepted some poor advice, or simply isn’t interested in reaching a high level of proficiency. As I mentioned above, different people do things different ways depending on how their brain is wired. For example I write with my left hand and play guitar that way too, but I use scissors with my right hand and shoot a bow that way also. Just because someone writes with their left hand doesn’t automatically mean they are predisposed to playing guitar left handed as well.

The Guy In Guitar Center Told Me Just To Learn Righty

Why do you think he’s telling you this? If you buy a right handed guitar you are far more likely to go back to his store and buy more of his product, because that is what probably 90%+ of his stock is. He may be too small minded to keep more than a handful of left handed guitars, but he does have the brainpower to deduce that he’ll lose you as a potential repeat customer if he sells you a lefty. After all, are you likely to go back for a second look at his one black Strat copy in the corner? I think not. Bottom line – don’t listen to the store clerks if they tell you this…as explained above, only you can decide to play right handed or left handed.

And another thing – SALES INCENTIVES. Sales staff receive bonuses for selling certain items over others, and unfortunately many will not hesitate to make a quick buck rather than sell you the product you actually want and/or need.

They Also Told Me It’s Impossible To Find A Left Handed Guitar!

Anyone who tells you this is in possession of an incredibly outdated point of view. This is 2016, not 1976, and this wondrous invention called the internet makes it absurdly easy to obtain almost any left handed guitar you could wish for. Look at this – it would take you all day to trawl through that! And that’s just one site…

Sure, there are less options in general when it comes to choosing your guitars, but this is a terrible reason to possibly hinder your learning over. There are plenty of excellent left handed guitars available, and as the internet is making the world increasingly smaller the choice is only getting healthier. Besides, how many guitars do you really need?

Photo: Jerry’s Lefty Guitars, Florida USA

Isn’t Learning Left Handed Harder?

This is another myth I see crop up on a daily basis. This idea is floating around purely because of misinformed right handed payers who think they are qualified to give advice on playing guitar left handed. It is in NO WAY harder to learn guitar left handed. See this article on the Myths Surrounding Playing Left Handed Guitar.

The only real difference is that chord diagrams are mirrored, but it’s not too taxing to read something as simple as this backwards. If you want to ensure you are reading them correctly, check out our left handed chord diagrams. Or, if you’re super awesome and would like to support the site, check out our massive new lefty chord book. Tabs are not backwards, learning materials are not backwards, and it makes no difference to a guitar teacher if you are left handed – in fact, many say that it is easier to teach a southpaw due to the Mirror Effect!

Will Playing Right Handed Hurt My Playing?

If you are a natural left handed guitar player then of course it will (eventually). If you want to advance beyond the basics and become the best player that you can be, then I strongly suggest you play the way in which your body feels the most comfortable with. Alternatively, if you only want to learn a few camp fire songs then sure, you can get away with playing the wrong way around. Most of us, who actually have some ambition would be unsatisfied with just settling for being an average player however.

I’ve seen many lefties who play right handed and have difficulties later on because their picking/strumming hand is the less sensitive and controlled of the two. Typically, if they are fully left handed, their sense of rhythm in the right hand will be less developed or just unmanageable. This problem, which does not build up until later along the learning curve, can be an insurmountable obstacle. This is why I don’t recommend that left handers learn to play right handed unless they feel very comfortable with it.

To further back up my point – world renowned shred maestro Andy James gave an interview where he answered questions from fans. One of the questions was from a lefty who had chosen to play right handed guitar. After six years of practicing for six hours a day he could still only play his favorite band’s songs at half speed. See the article here .. Andy James on Left Handed Guitar.

Over the years I have received countless emails and comments from people who have struggled (sometimes for years!) playing right handed, only to try out southpaw mode and suddenly have a complete epiphany. As if by magic everything falls into place,,= and they start progressing at a pace that they could only have dreamed about beforehand. Left or right handed, play the correct way around and reap the rewards!

Please don’t feel that I am trying to push anyone to play guitar left handed. I am merely posting the facts because I am sick to death of reading the chicken scratch advice given to lefties on a daily basis. The bottom line is to play the way that feels natural to you, do not listen to anyone but YOUR OWN BODY. If you decide that you are a left handed guitar player then go for it! Here’sa good place to start.

Newbie Guide

Now that you (hopefully) know which way you are going to play, check out our 8-part Newbie Guide where you’ll learn everything that you need to know to get started with your new hobby! This series of guides is relevant to both left and right handed players and includes gear recommendations for beginners.

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http://leftyfretz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/learn-guitar-correctly.jpg160290Nealhttp://leftyfretz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/leftyfretz-top-logo.pngNeal2014-09-06 15:35:022016-07-09 16:40:59Should I Learn Guitar Right or Left Handed?

I’ve played the guitar for about 10-12 years. In this time I sometimes took breaks for months because it felt like I wasn’t making any progress whatsoever strumming-wise and have thought about quitting entirely for numerous times. But, I love the guitar and hope to someday be able to play along some of my favorite songs.
From the start I believed I should’ve gotten a left-handed guitar, but since I started playing on one of my friends’ guitars, I started playing with my right hand. I’m someone who’s cross dominant. I write with my left hand, I throw a ball with my right hand, I play air-guitar with my left hand, but I clap with my right hand. I can do the basics and the easy stuff, but my strumming has always felt off. I struggle keeping rhythm and I struggle especially on playing faster stuff, like tremolo picking, but I always blamed that on me not using a metronome. Now that I am using a metronome, I keep struggling. I can play fast, but it’s uncontrolled and inaccurate. My picking hand is all over the place, touching strings it isn’t supposed to touch and I can’t seem to successfully switch strings when moving to a higher string (down the fretboard). I also struggle greatly with muting string with my picking hand. One thing I did manage to change is the way I was strumming during 16th note picking or tremolo picking. I used to use my entire lower arm, now I’m using merely my wrist, but it always feels tensed and not loose at all.
I’m a fan of death metal, so the stuff I’m trying to play isn’t the easiest stuff either. Now that I read your article, I’m quite sure I ought to switch to a left handed guitar. As soon as I have some spare money lying around I’m gonna buy myself a left handed guitar. If I then still suck at guitar, I think I just might quit playing guitar at all, because it means I’m probably not fit for playing guitar. I’m not a natural rhythmic person either.
Also, I’m fully self-taught. I learned a couple of easy songs from my friend, but we separated ways and I tried to learn everything by myself, with the help of YouTube ofcourse. So that might also be a reason why I suck at guitar.

Anyways, thanks for the article. Gave me some hope I still have a chance at succeeding in playing guitar.
Greetings from the Netherlands!

That’s awesome Willem – good luck, hope it works out! It’s not the ideal way of doing it, but while you save up you could always restring one of your right handed guitars upside down to get a head start.

take a look at this guy though. He is an exceptional player and says that it’s better off to learn righty. He isn’t the only person who says this, every forum/website/article I go to, gives different advice. Some say that it doesn’t matter, some say that righty is better, some say that leftie is the way to go – but I can’t shake off the fact that this guy is a natural left handed player but plays so damn well right handed. Like, look at his popular videos.

You’ll also notice that the video has a huge number of down-votes when compared to his others. Most of the comments are from actual left handed players who flat out disagree with what he has to say.

He has done well playing right handed, but as well all know – everyone is different. Anyone can learn either way, but if you want to reach your highest potential then is it undoubtedly best to play whichever way feels the most comfortable from the get go. I know I’d rather be a better player than have the ability to play all of my friend’s guitars…

Steve Morse is a lefty who learned to play like a righthanded person in his youth, guess that’s just how it was back then, 50 years ago. I do think he sees having his domininant hand on the frets as an advantage, but his non-dominant picking hand does require a lot of practise.

My left handed daughter wants to play guitar and I read online that you can just reverse the strings to make it left handed. Your forum is leading me to believe you have to really buy a left handed guitar. I don’t know at all, is that right? Or can you really just reverse the strings? I just bought a right handed guitar assuming I could reverse the strings depending on which way she’s comfortable.

You can reverse the strings (Hendrix did it!), but it isn’t ideal. Depending on what type of guitar you’ve bought, at minimum you’ll need to reverse the nut (or install a left handed one) to accommodate the strings, and adjust the bridge to correct the intonation. See this article http://leftyfretz.com/restring-right-handed-guitar-left-handed/

Thanks , I’ve been through every scenario and still suck due to memory lose mostly can’t remember how or what I just played and or learned . So I started making left-handed guitars. At first I called it “Marz Guitars” then I looked it up on the Internet and sure enough there’s already a “Marz Guitars” awesome guitars btw . So now I call it “A. Left-Hand Guitars ” its more hobby like in reality , but in my head I think I’m a guitar making machine. No I won’t be quiting my day job anytime soon. (A.LOTZ PAINTING ) lol.
Anyways Great article, I actually googled “why do I look to the right when I play guitar” (meaning in general and not at the fretboard.) Anyways I bought a guitar from you or parts or something .(damn memory) It was a couple years ago I still have your sticker stuck on my file cabinet . Great logo and name btw.